Back many moons ago, or at least far enough back that I had a lot more hair (and far less gray in it), I began my career in public relations. But within a few years, I realized I wanted to go into product marketing, so much so that I left a really promising startup because they didn’t have any openings. I don’t exactly remember why I wanted to move into product marketing, but I suspect it was because it seemed like the perfect position. Know the product and create the external “story.” Then act as an evangelist to sales, prospects, customers, analysts and press.

This was almost 15 years ago. The Internet was becoming a big deal, but it wasn’t the primary source of research for technology buyers. This was long before lead management systems were in vogue. Selling was about relationships, and PR and trade shows (seemed like there was an event almost every week) were the primary ways marketing generated leads.

I did that for several years and then took some time off to get an MBA and be with my kids and shortly after that I took a job running marketing for a startup. Suddenly the world had changed. Marketing’s focus had shifted to lead generation and product marketing started getting measured by how many MQLs they could create. At companies with strong sales cultures, product marketers found their jobs changing. At companies with technology-driven cultures. product marketers became more focused on content as product management took an even more prominent role. Many experienced product marketers soon found employment in other positions and the function became even less influential.

Providers don’t have to make this happen at all once, nor is it particularly feasible to simply “flip a switch” and change responsibilities. In addition, culture shifts take time and adoption of new models are often multi-year events. But as your organization moves towards a connected model, consider broadening and strengthening the roles and responsibilities of product marketing.

Additional Resources

Todd Berkowitz
Research Vice President 3 years at Gartner 18 years IT Industry

Todd Berkowitz is a Research Vice President focusing on B2B technology marketing and sales. He advises product marketing leaders, CMOs and sales enablement leaders on how to improve the effectiveness of their demand generation, sales enablement, account-based marketing and upsell/cross-sell efforts. He also looks at how data, analytics, content and tools can improve marketing-sales alignment and overall effectiveness.. Read Full Bio

This is just a great article – one of those “oh, I’m not the only one preaching this” kinds of moments 🙂
Content, story-telling, customer experience (missing from above yet crucial to PMK in my opinion), and comps analysis, GTM, and a direct line to the top are some of the essential ingredients to PMK success.

Just an observation here … why isn’t there a LinkedIn Share button? I see one for FB (which I personally don’t consider a business social sharing site – but some do), Twitter, Delicious, Digg, and Google+ – but no LinkedIn – I find that strange.

Now, as for the article – even within an organization, it can change – depending on the leadership of the company (even more than business focus or maturity). I have personally witnessed ProdMktg shift from a focus on ProdMgt side, to Sales, to LeadGen, to “programs”, and then back again – all based upon who was leading the company. And I believe the cause is the senior (as in top CMO or VP) marketing person. Some of those don’t understand ProdMktg – therefore, they don’t defend it from a position of any strength.

[…] a former product marketer, you know I have a soft spot for this function. But as I’ve written about before, this role is becoming more and more important in light of the changing buying cycle. Things like […]

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